The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networks arranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information between users of computers. Hundreds of millions of people around the world have access to computers connected to the Internet via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Content providers place multimedia information, i.e. text, graphics, sounds, and other forms of data, at specific locations on the Internet referred to as websites. The combination of all the websites and their corresponding webpages on the Internet is generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply web.
Websites may be created using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). The HTML tags define how the webpages for the website are to be displayed. Users of the Internet may access content providers' websites using software known as a Web browser, such as MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER or NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR. After the browser has located the desired webpage, it requests and receives information from the webpage, typically in the form of an HTML document, and then displays the webpage content for the user. The user may then view other webpages at the same website or move to an entirely different website using the browser.
Browsers are able to locate specific websites because each website, resource and computer on the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Presently, there are two standards for IP addresses. The older IP address standard, often called IP Version 4 (IPv4), is a 32-bit binary number, which is typically shown in dotted decimal notation, where four 8-bit bytes are separated by a dot from each other, e.g. 64.202.167.32. The notation is used to improve human readability. The newer IP address standard, often called IP Version 6 (IPv6) or Next Generation Internet Protocol (IPng), is a 128-bit binary number. The standard human readable notation for IPv6 addresses presents the address as eight 16-bit hexadecimal words, each separated by a colon, for example 2EDC:BA98:0332:0000:CF8A:000C:2154:7313.
However, IP addresses, even in human readable notation, are difficult to remember and use by people. Uniform Resource Locators (URL) are much easier to remember and may be used to point to any website, directory or file on the Internet. A browser is able to access a website on the Internet through the use of a URL. The URL may include a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request combined with the website's Internet address, also known as the website's domain name. An example of a URL with an HTTP request and domain name is: http://godaddy.com. In this example, the “http” identifies the URL as an HTTP request and “godaddy.com” is the domain name.
Individuals, companies, and other entities that provide content on the web generally want to use their name or one of their trademarks as part of their domain name. Thus, domain names are generally company trademarks, personal names or short phrases concatenated with a top level domain name (TLD) extension (e.g. .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, .cc, .ws, .de, etc.). TLD extensions can be divided into two groups. The first group is known as generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) and the second group is country code TLDs (ccTLD). Examples of gTLDs include .com, .net, .org, .biz, etc. Examples of current ccTLDs are: .us for the United States, .uk and .gb for United Kingdom, .ca for Canada, .de for Germany, .jp for Japan, etc.
Domain names are much easier to remember and use than their corresponding IP addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approves some gTLDs and delegates the responsibility to a particular organization (hereinafter registry) for maintaining an authoritative source for the registered domain names within a TLD and their corresponding IP addresses. For certain TLDs, e.g. .biz, .info, .name, and now .org, the registry is also the authoritative source for contact information related to the domain name and is referred to as a “thick” registry. For other TLDs, e.g. .com, .net, only the domain name and name server information is stored within the registry, and a registrar is the authoritative source for the contact information related to the domain name. Such registries are referred to as “thin” registries. Most gTLDs are organized through a central domain name Shared Registration System (SRS) based on their TLD.
The process for registering a domain name with .com, .net, .org and some other registries allows a customer to use an ICANN-accredited registrar. For example, if a customer, John Doe, wishes to register the domain name “JohnDoe.com”, John Doe may initially determine whether the desired domain name is available by contacting a registrar. The customer may make this contact using the registrar's webpage and typing the desired domain name into a field on the registrar's webpage created for this purpose. Upon receiving the request from the customer, the registrar may ascertain whether “JohnDoe.com” has already been registered by checking the SRS database of the registry associated with the TLD of the domain name. The results of the search may then be displayed on the webpage to thereby notify the customer of the availability of the domain name. If the domain name is available, the customer may proceed with the registration process. Otherwise, the customer may keep selecting alternative domain names until an available domain name is found.
Domain names are typically registered for a period of one to ten years. If the registrant does not renew the domain name, it will expire. Shortly after the domain name goes past its expiration date the domain name will be deactivated. All domain services including the webpage and email will no longer work. For approximately 40 days the domain name will be in a “grace period”. During this time the domain name will not be active and may be renewed without paying any additional fees. At the end of the grace period the domain name will enter a 30-day redemption period. WHOIS information (name, address, telephone numbers, etc.) will be deleted from the registry. The domain name may be renewed by its original owner for a fee during the redemption period. Five days after the end of the redemption period the domain name will be deleted from the registry and will be made available for anyone to register.
Each website owner prefers that his domain name is easy to remember and type into a web browser. Generally, the shorter the domain name, the more desirable it is. Domain names consisting of a single word or abbreviation are most desirable. Domain names consisting of multiple words, having digits or hyphens are less desirable. Also domain names in some TLDs are more desirable than names in other TLDs; thus, .com is the oldest TLD for businesses and currently the most desirable.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a distributed database that allows browsers, search engines and other Internet applications to determine an IP address for any of the domain names stored in the DNS. A registrant may select authoritative name servers for the registrant's domain name and provide them to the registering registrar. The authoritative name servers store the information necessary to find the name servers that store the IP address for the domain name. The registrar may store the authoritative name servers for the domain name in the WHOIS database.
The registry for the domain name may access the authoritative name servers, determine the name servers and store the name servers in the DNS root servers. The name servers may either provide the IP address of the domain name or provide the address to yet another name server. Occasionally, several levels of name servers may have to be searched before reaching a name server that has the IP address of the domain name.
The name servers for the domain name may be operated by the registrant, the registrar, a hosting provider, or another party. The structure of the DNS database gives the registrant or the registrant's hosting provider a great deal of flexibility in assigning, controlling and updating the IP address for the domain name.
Currently, domain names have a global effect. Accessing a website from anywhere in the world is likely to produce the same or similar webpage on users' web browsers. However, many businesses have a limited area of operation and don't necessarily need world-wide exposure. Therefore, new systems and methods are needed to allow the sharing of domain names and provide access to the websites associated with the shared domain names.
Similarly, email addresses associated with domain names have global effect. Sending an email message from anywhere in the world to an email account would result in the delivery of this email to the same entity. Therefore, new systems and methods are needed to allow the sharing of domain names and provide delivery of email messages to email accounts associated with shared domain names.